Could you be great at something?

Most people never find "their thing".

I think that probably everyone, has a "thing" if they can only find it.?That latent skill that they have, the ability to learn to be great at something if they can only uncover it - and along with the ability to be great, the probability that they will love doing it as well.

It's such a shame that most people never find it.?But how would they??How can you discover that you have the potential to be a great water-colour painter, or wood carver, or motorbike repairer, or deep sea diver, or designer of logos, dressmaker, negotiator, project manager, kindergarten teacher, perfume tester, boxer, embroiderer, etc etc.?You'd have to try everything until you finally found that one thing!

But I bet it's there, waiting to be found!?Whilst maybe not being the best in the world (or the G.O.A.T.), there will certainly be SOMETHING that you could be VERY good at, probably better than anything you currently do, if you could only find it.

In his book "Bounce"?Matthew Syed?describes how a large number of table tennis champions all came from the same street.?Was it the water??Was it coincidence? No it was because they had the same coach at their school, who inspired them to practice and aim for the top.?But of course they didn't have more talent than all the people in all the other streets in all the other towns in all the other countries -?there MUST have been many other people who had more talent and could have been even better, but they just didn’t have the luck of having that coach,?....so they never got to discover their table tennis talent.??

Similarly Charles Mingus, one of the greatest bass players ever, was originally given a trombone and just couldn't get on with it, so his parents persevered and got him a drum kit instead - he has hopeless at that as well.?But STILL they persevered and got him to try the bass.?And from the moment he held the bass in his hands he KNEW that THAT was what he was born to play.?Thank goodness he didn't stick with the trumpet, or give up after the drums!?The search must go on!

Clearly not in the league of Mingus, but in my little world it's been a similar long search - a few years spent as an under-performing engineer, then many years spent trying to enjoy management, then many years being quite good at training, then finally, after nearly 40 years, discovering that I have a talent for video making.

Keep searching till you find it!

Of course you have to do the work as well - great sports people, great musicians, great artists, have to learn their craft, they aren't immediately brilliant.?They probably enjoy the learning of the craft because they feel an affinity for it, but still, it takes time to find out whether you are going to be really good at something, and this limits how many things you can try.?You might get a Mingus Moment right at the start, but more likely you'l have to spend 6 months having lessons before you either take flight and soar, or you realise it's not for you and give up the piano, or speaking Chinese, or doing heart transplants (OK, maybe longer than 6 months for that last one!).

So what's the conclusion?

a) The search must go on -?believe that you DO have a thing and that it's your job, your life purpose, to find it

b) Don't settle for second best.?Being OK at something, and quite liking what you do, isn't good enough!??

c) You don't have to throw it all out and start again, maybe you can evolve it, or maybe you can search in parallel, but never 100% settle and think "This must be it"

d) Keep trying things, even things that are nothing like anything you've done before.?Particularly those! Maybe you DO have a talent for hang gliding or designing fabrics, or programming in Python - or keeping reptiles???You won't know until you try!